[MONSTERS] Precocious

[Arcane]

The Monsters weyrlings aren't ready to fly for another month- but some of them certainly seem eager to try. After one of the weyrlings was caught trying to catch enough air to glide by jumping off the perfect height set of crates in the common room, you've all been assigned to extra endurance runs to help keep your dragons tired out until they're old enough to fly safely.

[Dragon]

Lumuth certainly didn't need any extra exercise to sleep. In fact, napping was one of her favorite pastimes. Still, there was no getting out of the extra endurance runs that had been assigned, even though she wasn't the one who'd been trying to glide early.

Actually, Renkestuous fully expected to be late being allowed to ride his green. She was the smallest in the clutch, a delicate little thing, still markedly under four feet at the shoulder, and Renkestuous was not a small man. Wiry, yes, but tall enough so that he still overtowered the shoulder height of most of the clutch. Not that he would by the time they were full-grown, of course, but he felt a little like a sore thumb with how he could still peer over the shoulders of most of the dragonets.

If I curl up in the middle of my run, will they allow me to nap instead? Lumuth asked wistfully. The point is to tire us out, after all.

I don't think that will work, dearheart, Renkestuous sighed, running along with her. If they were to be tired out, then by the first egg, they'd be tired out. It was unfortunate, but there didn't seem to be any way out of it.

[FirebrandPhlox]

"Velfryth, you need to run! The Weyrlingmaster commanded it!" Phelps yelled loudly as he gestured angrily at his dragon.

Velfryth snorted from her shaded perch. I don't need to do anything. I'm able to control myself, unlike my immature siblings. Extra laps? Honestly. Running is beneath one such as I, who is destined for the skies.

Phelps sputtered in frustration, his face a deep red. "Your insistence on being ready to fly is why we have to run the laps! If you would've just listened to me and stayed off those crates, we wouldn't be having to put in these extra drills at all!"

The pair glared at each other, neither willing to move an inch.

[Dragon]

Lumuth was less than pleased with Velfryth at the moment. The green had a certain yearning for the sky - it was clearly where she belonged - but she was also willing to bide her time until she was told she was ready to glide. (She had been jumping about and fluttering her wings, but surely that passed as exercising them.)

Dear sister, she sighed, I'm sure your grace will lend itself well to the skies, but we do have to wait for our wings to be able to hold us up. She fluttered her own with a gusty sigh. All right, maybe she was more eager to fly than she pretended.

Gently, Lumuth nudged her long, thin blue sister with her adorably rounded nose. We could run together, since we must run? She gave another agrieved sigh.

[FirebrandPhlox]

"Hey, keep your claws off her!" Phleps howled, shooing Lumuth away from his precious dragon. "I don't need your help to handle my dragon!" His face was fully flushed and brow furrowed deep as a canyon.

Phelps was no stranger to work, having spent so much time on the seas laboring on ships of varying repute, but Velfryth was a whole different kind of labor. No amount of lectures could have actually prepared him for how exhausting the work of having a dragon actually was, both physically and mentally. At least when he was a sailor, the shipmates he was frustrated with couldn't hear his thoughts and constantly project their own into his head. Especially a dragon so full of herself.

You act as if you aren't a miserable wretch to share thoughts with either, Velfryth snorted. Always complaining and judging others. I at least am perfection.

A perfect pain in my ass, Phelps retorted.

Velfryth shot him a look, then turned her attention to Lumuth. Do not push me, sister, she said coldly. Running is beneath me, but if you are so content to fill your lowly station, you can do so without me.

[Dragon]

Lumuth scrunched up her nose in annoyance, lip curling just slightly but not enough to show teeth. You're not that much bigger than me.

"Yes, she is, Lumuth, you're tiny," Renkestuos broke in, exasperated. Lumuth had just been trying to be nice, and there was no reason for Phelps and Velfryth to be snobby about this, especially since it was Velfryth's fault, but Lumuth was only about two-thirds of the blue's size. She hadn't previously been as violent as some of her clutchmates, but he was sure she had it in her. Somewhere. Probably very deep down.

Giving an annoyed huff, Lumuth deliberately turned her back on her sister, nosing at Renkestuous instead. Do I really have to run? I have been good, have I not been?

Very good, dearheart, but all of you have to run. Even miss thinks-she's-a-queen over there. He smiled and Lumuth, giving her a fond scratch behind the headknobs. "We might as well get this over with," he told her aloud, although it was more for the snobs who thought running beneath them. "We wouldn't want to anger the weyrling master."

[Arcane]

Stygiath hadn't been the dragon to try to jump off the crates. She didn't see the point, when there was much better trouble to get in to. Exploring forbidden caverns was a much more fun way of breaking the rules, in her not-so-humble opinion. Sometimes, there were even small furry squeaking things inside. And she would never do something as cliche as get caught.

But then- not all her siblings could be as sensible and fabulous as Stygiath.

And some of them were far too obsessed with flying.

Which sounded like fun and all (there were exciting things like birds and bugs and storms in the sky, after all), but there was also plenty of other great stuff on the ground.

That said- Stygiath liked running. And Francesca needed the practice, if she was going to have a hope of keeping up with Stygiath, when her legs got even longer and more fantastic.

This course is boring, Stygiath noted. Just because she wanted to run didn't mean she wanted to run here, Let's run down to the lake instead.

She didn't see why it mattered where they ran, so long as they ran. And while she didn't especially want any of his siblings' coming along- maybe they'd whine less about their legs being sore tonight after some good splashing and filling their bellies with tasty fish. She was such a generous green.

She took off in that direction, not paying a moment's mind to her rider calling out for her to come back. Francesca would follow eventually, once she realized Stygiath was right (as she always was).